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Apr 22, 2016, 08:00am

Seven Things To Remember When Shifting Marketing Dollars From Advertising To Content

Content and advertising each serve their own unique purpose in your brand marketing strategy: while advertising works well as a lead gen tool, content provides a platform in which to best engage with your audience.

When deciding whether to shift your marketing dollars from advertising to content, consider your core focus and goals: are you looking to improve upon SEO rankings? Are you looking to acquire new users? Knowing the answers to these questions will put you on a clear path to allocating budget in a way that makes the most sense for your company's roadmap.

Below, seven agency executives from Forbes Agency Council share what you should remember when determining whether to shift your company's marketing dollars from advertising to content.

Content marketing and advertising serve different but important goals. Content marketing builds thought leadership, educates, improves SEO and reinforcesyour brand story. Advertising is hyper-focused on user acquisition and is the best strategy if you’re looking for a clear way to acquire new users. It’s easier to measure and attribute the impact of your investment with direct advertising. – Katie Jansen, AppLovin

2. You Need Both Advertising and Content in Order to Succeed

In order to succeed in your marketing efforts, you need to utilize the PESO model. PESO stands for paid, earned, shared and owned media. All four medias need to be in place in order to succeed. Paid media (advertising) as well as shared and owned media (content) serve completely different purposes: advertising is about pure leads and downloads whereas content is about engagement with your customers. – Ayelet Noff, Blonde 2.0

3. Consider Your Goals

Ask yourself: Are you achieving what you'd hoped? Is it awareness that is your issue or is it understanding? Advertising drives awareness. Content brings it to life. Usually you need to drive awareness to your content to take care of both. Which is suffering? Which could benefit from a boost? There's your answer. – Randy Hughes, Carmichael Lynch

4. Consider How the Two Can Work Together

Today's most successful PR plans are more like PESO strategies, which are made up of paid, earned, shared and owned media. Think about how your ads and content (owned media) can work together and enhance one another. How can you meet prospective customers where they are, and what's the best way to do that? Sometimes it takes a little bit of both. – Rebekah Iliff, AirPR

As an SEO professional of 17 years, the most common question I get about SEO is what matters most? In the early days of SEO the answer was easy: links. The more websites that linked to your website and the higher quality those links, the higher your website would rank. However, times have changed. Content is the new holy grail and is a required investment if you are serious about SEO. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

6. Keep Today's Buyer Patterns in Mind

The way people buy has changed. Instead of relying on a salesperson for information, buyers are doing the research themselves before calling you -- and this speaks to why content is taking off. Plus, interruption marketing (which is most advertising) is losing effectiveness. That said, if advertising is working for you, continue. Also keep in mind that advertising is a great way to promote content. – Rob Levin, RSL Media

7. Allocate Your Budget Between Both

They are separate entities, and your budget should be allocated as such. Content marketing focuses on owning media, not renting it. Kanye West knows this -- he’s a great content marketer. If you shock people, they will talk about you. The two concepts need to work in tandem because without advertising, you will need a platform to deliver your message to your audience (unless of course, you’re Yeezy). – Jenna Gross, Moving Targets

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Find out if you qualify at forbesagencycouncil.com/qualify. Questions about an article? Email feedback@fo...